


Beginning and End

by Dazzledfirestar



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: First Kiss, Getting Together, M/M, Or nobody told Nick he was alive..., canon divergence - Phil died
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-30
Updated: 2013-08-30
Packaged: 2017-12-25 03:43:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/948222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dazzledfirestar/pseuds/Dazzledfirestar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How things started with Nick and Phil, and SHIELD. And how they ended.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beginning and End

**Author's Note:**

> I took the prompt very literally this time. It's exactly what it says. Written for my trope-bingo [card](http://dazzledfirestar.dreamwidth.org/1775.html). Prompt: first time / last time

As he slid into the vinyl covered bench seat, it finally hit him. They’d made it back. They were home and something told him, beer and pizza was a good way to celebrate that. He clicked back into the conversation to hear Phil’s subtle complaint again.

“If you’d just come to Chicago with me for a while, we could be having the best deep dish you can imagine. You know that right?”

Nick chuckled and nodded. “I know. I’ll come visit.”

“You keep saying that.” Phil smirked before placing his order and letting Nick do the same. “Somehow I doubt it.”

“Oh, really?” Nick shook his head. “After everything we’ve been through, you think I’d lie to you about that? I’m hurt.” 

“No, not really.” He nodded his thanks to the waitress again as she dropped off their drinks. “I’m just making sure you remember your poor old friend when he’s stuck in Chicago, all alone—“

“You have family there.”

“—looking for a job and missing you.”

“Aw. You gonna start bringing me candy and flowers next?” Nick laughed and kicked him under the table.

“Hell, no.” Phil kicked back. “You think I’m going to spend my money on you when I can get it for free?” He smirked and took a long drink of his beer.

“Keep dreaming.”

“Oh, every night.” He laughed again and they both sat back as the pizza was set on the table. Phil dug in, still grumbling how it would have been better back home even as he raised the slice in Nick’s direction. “To being home?”

“Works for me.” Nick smiled and pulled his own slice free. He smirked as he swallowed the first bite. “We’re splitting the bill. I wouldn’t want you to feel obligated to put out.”

Phil shook his head. “Fuck you.”

“Like I said, I don’t want you to feel obligated.”

“How very gentlemanly of you.” 

They both looked up at the woman standing beside the table. She was older, the salt and pepper of her hair set off by the dark suit jacket and skirt she was wearing. She raised one perfect eyebrow as if she expected more reaction from her comment. Apparently they’d both been too surprised that she’d snuck up to their table without them noticing to come up with any sort of smart ass answer. “I am under the impression that you two are currently looking for work?”

“Um…” Phil looked over at Nick and shrugged. “Yeah?”

“Very articulate, aren’t you?” She shook her head. “I am Agent Carter. And I’m here to offer you a job. Both of you.”

“Agent of what exactly?” Nick’s eyebrow climbed up at the same slow rate Agent Carter’s had.

She smiled. “We’re a division with a specific focus. Believe me, you won’t get a better offer and you’ll never get bored. We are also far less interested in your personal lives than the military tends to be.”

That was an interesting comment as far as Nick was concerned. But given what she’d overheard, maybe not quite as surprising as it should have been. “That’s a vaguely presumptuous assumption to make, Agent.” Nick couldn’t quite hold back the smile and he knew Phil was with him on it all by the soft chuckle from across the table.

“I’m not presuming anything, Sergeant. Not a single thing.” She smiled and slid a business card across to him and another to Phil. “Think about it.” She turned on her heel without another word and left.

Nick watched Phil study the card. “Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.”

Nick shook his head. “There’s got to be a better name for that.”

“Well, that’s priority one when we take the job, right?” Phil smirked and finished off his beer.

He laughed and waved the waiter over, ordering another round. When the beers came, he clinked the lip of his bottle against Phil’s. “We’re going to become suits, you know that right?”

“She said we’d never get bored. I don’t think this place’s idea of a suit matches up with the rest of the world’s.” He waved the card at Nick. “Besides, I look great in a suit.” He grinned and took another sip of his beer.

Nick grinned back, his mind already turning over the possibilities this Strategic Homeland blah blah blah place could offer. As he listened to Phil bitch about the pizza he couldn’t quite help but wonder if they’d still be working together. Just because this Agent Carter approached them together didn’t mean they’d still be working with each other. He was sure, either way it wasn’t like they’d never see each other again. Government jobs—and that’s what this looked a hell of a lot like—didn’t really work that way. But they’d had each other’s backs for so long, the thought of somebody else doing it seemed off.

He took a long drink from his second beer and told himself to stop borrowing trouble.

“Not bad. Would have been better back home.”

Nick shook his head. “Whatever you say. Maybe we’ll get shipped out to Chicago by these people and you can show me all the good pizza.”

“You got yourself a deal, my friend.” Phil gave the waitress a smile as she dropped off the bill. “I guess that’s assuming we’re still a team, right?”

“Reading my mind again.”

“Stop making it so easy.” Phil wiped his hands and pulled out his wallet. “Guess we won’t really know til we say yes.”

“Are you going to?”

“Yeah.” He looked up, tilting his head a little like Nick had just started speaking in tongues. “Aren’t you?”

Nick smirked and shrugged. “Can’t send you in there alone.”

“Good. You had me worried there for a second.” 

He reached for his wallet, putting his half of the tab and the tip on the table and sliding out of the booth, slipping the business card in his pocket. “Back to the hotel?”

“Yeah. Might as well make use of all three stars.” Phil smirked and slid out, following him toward the door.

“Hey, only the best for you.” His laugh was accompanied by the tinking of the bells on the door as he stepped out into the cool night air. He pulled his collar up against the wind. The walk back wasn’t long, thankfully but it was definitely starting to feel like winter. 

When the bells didn’t sound again, he turned around to see what was holding Phil up. The waiter had been cute, but wasn’t Phil’s usual type so…

He heard the man’s voice a second later. “Oh, what the hell…” He sounded resigned. Nick didn’t get a chance to ask about it before Phil’s hand came up, cupping the back of his head and pulling him into a kiss. It took a second too long for his brain to catch up and Phil was pulling back, blushing a little and staring at a point over Nick’s shoulder. “Don’t kill me alright? Just… look, it never happened. It’s fine.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets and started toward the hotel. Nick got a hold on his arm and turned him back around. “Hey,” he pulled him a little closer. “You caught me off guard.”

“Point for me, I guess.”

“Cheese…” Nick tried to find the right way to say he wasn’t going to kill him; that he wanted Phil to kiss him again so he could actually… well, kiss back. He pulled him closer again and watched as he licked his lips. “Phil…”

“You don’t have to—“

“I want to.” He didn’t bother with anything else. He didn’t check to see if anyone else was on the street or if the staff from the diner was watching. He pulled Phil close up against him and kissed his lips for all he was worth. A moment later, Phil kissed back and it got so much better. 

He lost himself in the moment and probably wouldn’t have stopped if Phil hadn’t pulled back. He looked so damn good; lips kiss swollen, cheeks flushed. “We should probably…” He motioned toward the hotel again.

Nick couldn’t help the small smile that crossed his face. “Do I get to keep kissing you when we get there?”

Phil smirked as Nick slipped his hand into his pocket, lacing their fingers together. “You fucking better.”

~*~*~*~

To anyone walking past the coffee shop, they probably looked about as normal as they ever did. Just two middle aged men having coffee. Even if one had an eye patch and both had a clear shot at both exits if something happened.

“You sure I can’t change your mind?”

“No.” Nick shook his head. “Stark will listen to you. We don’t have time for his posturing bullshit right now.”

“But…”

“Phil, you’ll meet him. You’ll both be on the carrier together. It’s bound to happen eventually.” Nick smirked a little in spite of the situation. “Only you could fanboy at a time like this.”

“Taking joy in meeting my hero is not—“

Nick leaned across the table and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. “Yeah, it is.”

“You are sleeping on the couch for a month.”

“I’ll remember you said that when this is all over.” What he wanted to do was sit down and have a long, relaxed if ridiculously late dinner with his husband. What he wanted was to take some time off, let Hill run the world for a couple weeks and go sit on a beach somewhere with drinks with umbrellas in them and Phil in a lot less than a suit. But Loki and the tesseract weren’t going to let that happen just at that moment. He glanced at his watch and tapped meaningfully on the electric portfolio on the table. “I should go. And so should you.”

“Please—“

“No. You have your own problem to deal with.”

“Captain America is not a problem.”

“Tell you what, if he comes along, you can fly back with him.”

Phil’s eyes lit up for a second and Nick gave in and kissed him again. Phil rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Okay, fine.”

As they left the coffee shop, Nick was struck with a sense of déjà vu. It didn’t make sense, really. Different street. Different part of the city altogether. It was warm and calm, no cold wind. But he reached out and took Phil’s arm, pulling him back for another slow, deeper kiss. Phil liked to joke that Nick was still trying to make up for their first kiss even if the second one had been pretty spectacular.

“What was that for?” 

“I don’t know.” He leaned in and kissed him again. “Love you.”

Phil smiled and nipped at his bottom lip. “Love you too. See you back on the carrier.”

Nick watched him walk toward the car and get in; the kiss still tingling on his lips. Even as the world was crumbling around them, he had to smile. 

He turned and started walking toward the gym Captain Rogers had been frequenting since his return to the world of the living. It wasn’t a long walk but it would be enough time to mull over a few things and get his game face back on.

SHIELD had been the adventure Agent Carter had promised and while they hadn’t always worked together, she’d been true to her word that SHIELD never interfered with the relationship that started the same night they’d been approached. If anything they’d been more supportive than anyone in the private sector probably would have been. What started as simply labeling someone ‘medical proxy’ grew into couples benefits and on a personal note, being able to tell their friends from work that, yes they were getting married and yes, they were invited.  
Nobody wanted to miss out on Agent Carter performing a wedding ceremony after all. And nobody ever asked how they talked her into it. The secret was that they didn’t have to, of course. Peggy had volunteered. One more secret for the future director of SHIELD, she’s told him with a wink.

It seemed appropriate that his mind went to those memories as he went to speak with Captain America himself. He’d put in a call to Peggy as soon as they’d gotten in the report that he was going to make it through the defrosting process. She’d said thank you and that if Captain Rogers wanted to talk, she’d be willing to do so.

Whether Rogers had done anything with that intel wasn’t any of his business. Though, his personal expert on all things Cap had mentioned that it would be hard not to want to know. Phil had wrapped his arms around Nick and told him he’d have to make the call if it were him. Nick had pulled him close and stopped working for the rest of that night.

Nick shook his head as he walked through the door to the gym. He gave one more thought to the kiss in the street earlier, smiling softly to himself and remembering the press of Phil’s lips on his a million times over the last twenty years. He couldn’t pin down what had been so special about this one. But it would come back to him, time and again. Over and over again. He was sure, later on, after everything was said and done that he’d dream about that kiss.

After all, as last kisses went, it definitely could have been worse.


End file.
